The Séance of Blake Manor is a supernatural detective mystery taking place over Halloween weekend in 1897 Ireland. Developed by Spooky Doorway and published by Raw Fury, The Séance of Blake Manor had a full release on October 27th, 2025. Our private investigator, Declan Ward, is summoned to Blake Manor to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Evelyn Deane—and that’s just the beginning. Full of mysteries to solve, clues to find and an impending séance occurring Halloween night, the game offers hours of fun and an excellent narrative with a well-rounded cast of characters. Players must use their best detective skills to find evidence and solve puzzles with the help of the tools available to you, such as timetables and branching mystery maps.
The Séance of Blake Manor has a unique way of progressing time. Instead of a constantly ticking clock, time only moves forward when you perform some sort of action, such as investigating an object, opening a drawer or discussing evidence with others. Players have all the time in the world to strategize and plan their next moves. However, you have only the weekend to solve everything, which makes time slightly limited. Different mysteries, supernatural events, and plot twists will have you on your toes as you try to solve the many mysteries within Blake Manor. It will most likely require a few playthroughs in order to solve them all without the use of a guide.
With that being said, The Séance of Blake Manor is best played completely blind to spoilers. In my review, I do my best to avoid discussing major spoilers and keep any images limited to ones that exist within the first hour or two of my gameplay. I think by reading this review, you will get an overall gist of gameplay mechanics and still be able to experience a majority of the story firsthand. However, I also completely understand wanting no spoilers at all. The TLDR of it is that it’s a super fun, narrative-rich game that I gladly recommend. The game gripped my attention throughout, and its ominous atmosphere complements the experience beautifully. So, with that in mind, enable your detective vision because it’s time to discuss The Séance of Blake Manor!
The Manor: A Colorful Cast of Character & A Halloween Séance
After reading a mysterious letter asking us to investigate Evelyn Deane’s disappearance, our detective Declan Ward travels to Blake Manor located in Ireland. Our anonymous writer claims that everyone is acting as if nothing happened, when they are sure that something strange is certainly afoot. With the promise of financial award (200£ down payment and another 300£ if we find her alive), Detective Ward arrives at the manor on Friday, October 29th, 1897 at 11 PM. Ward states that Evelyn Deane is Rupert Deane’s daughter, and Rupert, a slumlord, played a role in our brother’s death. He speculates if the letter’s sender knew this beforehand, or if it just sheer coincidence. Mister Ward then presses on and encounters the eerie grandeur of Blake Manor.
There are three things we learn almost immediately about Blake Manor. The first is that strange occurrences seem to be plaguing the manor. Flashes of ghostly specters vanish when entering rooms. Strange dreams haunt us while we sleep and odd symbols exist throughout the manor. Before we even step foot inside, a shadowy figure bursts into a murder of crows. The game isn’t a horror or thriller, but it does set up an uneasy atmosphere very well with the supernatural elements. Much like Declan’s Ward bad feeling, something feels off about Blake Manor. Perhaps it has something to do with the second thing we learn almost immediately about—the séance.
One of the many items we can interact with in the beginning is a calendar of events that will occur over the weekend. What’s most odd and most advertised is the séance that will occur on Sunday, or Halloween, night. The séance is to held by a medium who claims to be the first to directly communicate with the dead. Shortly after checking in, we come across a strange green device in the atrium. Later on, we learn that as we convince guests not to attend the séance, the device ticks down, as if it’s losing energy. What is the device for though? The answer to this is just one of the many mysteries we must figure out. What we do know though is that all of the guests are here for the séance in some way or another and some might even hide sinister secrets and plots.
Last but certainly not least is of course the cast of characters. With 24 other characters, Declan Ward has his detective work and his social skills cut out for him. Characters include the staff members such as the stoic manager, Vincent Varley, and guests, many of whom are magical practitioners, such as Irish druid, Domhnall Ó Finn. Everyone is a potential culprit of Evelyn Deane’s disappearance. One should stay suspect of them all until you can reasonable rule them out. To do so, we must analyze them for details on their person, discuss evidence with as we collect more information, and occasionally even assist in solving smaller mysteries that could help solve the bigger questions. The well written dialogue we have with others—or that we eavesdrop on—enhances the game’s narrative-rich style and it’s mystery.
The Tools: Detective Tips 101
Many players, including myself, felt the need to have a pen and notebook handy to write down information when playing The Séance of Blake Manor. Though you certainly can take this approach, there are a few tools at your disposal to help assist in your detective work. Mystery maps are just one example. They will continuously update, branch out and connect as you gather new evidence and information in regards to a mystery. This includes when profiling people as well, as each character has their own mystery map. The maps are also used when making a hypothesis. This requires you to select specific words from the map to fill in the blanks. It is important to check these often to make tying evidence to mysteries more simple and easy to follow. You can also take a bigger look at all collected information in the records section.
Another tool available in the Mysteries section is the character chart specifically under The Culprit mystery. This chart tracks suspects behind Evelyn Deane’s disappearance. It lists facts known to be true of the culprit on the left. On the right is all 24 characters with key, relevant information and quick access to their profiles. You can eliminate characters from your suspect list too. This might help later on when you’ve gathered more facts about who the culprit is and want to hone in on the remaining suspects. This will also show when guests have decided not to attend the séance, which is useful for that strange device in the atrium.
As mentioned earlier, time works differently in The Séance of Blake Manor. Time will only progress when you are performing an action of some kind, such as investigating evidence or interacting with people. The majority of these actions only take up one minute, with a few major events taking up around 30 minutes. The game offers a wide range of actions to take. Some prove more useful while many others just add small tidbits of story that may not be so relevant. I believe in the first few playthroughs, a level of curiosity is expected and I would say even encouraged. I never felt like I wasted time, even if I spent half an hour investigating things that Ward comments on briefly before moving on. You can worry about being more strategic with your time and spending it wisely—putting your best detective foot forward—in future attempts.
With each hour, different events occur and characters will typically move about the manor. The timetable displays when bigger story events take place, such as meals throughout the day. Bigger story events are not mandatory, but they can provide some major plot elements. It’s usually good to attend them if you have no pressing mysteries to solve. You can also track character’s schedules in the timetable. This is done by asking them directly, through various event outcomes or by finding their journals, usually located in their room. Obviously, the guests won’t be too keen if you barge into their room uninvited. You will be evicted from the manor, resulting in a game over. Searching character’s rooms is super important when profiling them, so it’s useful to learn their schedule. That way, you can do your snooping when they aren’t around.
If you are not aware of a character’s schedule, it can be slightly difficult to locate them. The manor is quite big and expansive. Though the map is meant to assist in navigation, it can still be easy to get turned around and lost. However, with time only proceeding when you perform actions, you do have an unlimited amount of time just to explore the different rooms of the manor before deciding on your next move.
Outside of the tools on this tab, there is also a library to search up different records. There are a few other things that are generally good to do. Before entering a characters room, you are able to listen in to hear if someone is on the other side. There are vents as well that you can listen in on. This may provide hidden clues from characters speaking when they think no one can hear them. It’s also useful to investigate things that might give you a bigger picture of the manor. This includes such things as the guest log or the room layout maps.
The Graphics & Audio: A Beautifully Haunting Atmosphere
The developers at Spooky Doorway did an amazing job at creating a spooky atmosphere for The Séance of Blake Manor. The graphics are done in a comic-book style. Cutscenes really play into the style with how they depict images with a comic-book panel approach. Even though characters take on more 2D aspects in game, they don’t feel flat at all due to their appearance and the amount of details that went into their character art. One of my favorite things to do (and another useful tip) is to analyze everyone. This will allow you to check out some details about the character, such as jewelry or body language. These will obviously help when profiling people too.
The manor itself is 3D and navigable. There’s even a shift button to walk faster and a crouch button. Big open rooms with lots to look at help make the graphics feel more dynamic without being too overly demanding on your computer. I personally wouldn’t mind a completely 3D world including the characters, but it’s not needed for this game. This is only Spooky Doorway‘s second game, with the first, The Darkside Detective, being pixelated. The graphics in The Séance of Blake Manor feel like a major step up from pixels. I think they should be applauded for that.
The audio is extremely good too. Background music is super atmospheric and plays a huge role in making the game feel ominous without being a horror. I explored the manor with unease as the music set an eerie tone and floorboards creaked beneath me. There is voice acting in the game during major story dialogues and events. Character voices felt super fitting and everyone did a great job delivering their lines. I do wish that all lines of dialogue could have been voice acted, as occasionally there will be long bits of reading in silence, but I digress. Overall, the audios are great and I think the developers did a great job!
The Conclusion: There’s No Mystery in How Good this Game is
I think there’s many good reasons as to why The Séance of Blake Manor has overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam. I wish I heard about this game sooner. It would have been the perfect game to play over Halloween! I will keep coming back to this game, determined to uncover its mysteries without using a guide. Normally, long term replayability is something I consider in my reviews. However, this is the charm/curse when it comes to story based games. After a few playthroughs, you’ll begin having a better idea of what you need to do. Though there are certainly different ways to go about reaching a solution, the solutions themselves stay the same. With seemingly no post-launch roadmap or future DLCs, The Séance of Blake Manor will eventually be put down by players.
I will still gladly recommend this to anyone whose into a good story, to those who like solving puzzles and mysteries, and to those who like games with a little bit of spooks. The developers at Spooky Doorway deserve a round of applause for this one! I can’t wait to see what they come up with next! I may even check out The Darkside Detective in the meantime. For now though, I got to brush up on my intuitive detective skills and return Blake Manor.
Thank you for reading and listen into those vents!
